The 365 · Verses · Day 219 · Justice
Even a marriage ending has a just way to end - with kindness and witnesses.
فَإِذَا بَلَغْنَ أَجَلَهُنَّ فَأَمْسِكُوهُنَّ بِمَعْرُوفٍ أَوْ فَارِقُوهُنَّ بِمَعْرُوفٍ وَأَشْهِدُوا۟ ذَوَىْ عَدْلٍ مِّنكُمْ وَأَقِيمُوا۟ ٱلشَّهَـٰدَةَ لِلَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكُمْ يُوعَظُ بِهِۦ مَن كَانَ يُؤْمِنُ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلْيَوْمِ ٱلْـَٔاخِرِ ۚ وَمَن يَتَّقِ ٱللَّهَ يَجْعَل لَّهُۥ مَخْرَجًا
“When they have completed their appointed term, either keep them honourably, or part with them honourably. Call two just witnesses from your people and establish witness for the sake of God. Anyone who believes in God and the Last Day should heed this: God will find a way out for those who are mindful of Him. (Quran 65:2)”
Svenska: [När någon av er skilt sig från sin hustru] och hennes väntetid närmar sig sitt slut, skall han antingen hålla henne kvar eller också låta henne gå, allt i hedersamma former. Och tag två rättsinniga människor ur er krets till vittnen, och avge själva vittnesmål inför Gud! Denna maning riktas till alla som tror på Gud och den Yttersta dagen. Gud visar var och en som fruktar Honom en utväg ur [alla svårigheter]
The story
The Justice theme reaches its most tender ground: the end of a marriage. Al-Saadi notes a precision in the wording - 'when they reach their term' means when the waiting period (ʿidda) is nearly complete, not fully over, for once it truly ends the husband no longer holds the choice between keeping and parting. Within that window God gives two honorable exits and no third: 'keep them bil-maʿrūf' - in genuine good companionship, al-Saadi says, not retaining her to harm or trap her - 'or part with them bil-maʿrūf,' a separation without cursing, quarreling, or pressuring her to surrender her wealth. Ibn Kathīr reads it the same way: reconcile kindly or release kindly, never with abuse. Then justice is built into the machinery of the parting: 'call two just witnesses.' Ibn Kathīr cites the report of ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, who told a man that divorcing and reconciling without witnesses ran against the Sunna - 'bring witnesses for the divorce and the return, and do not do it again.' Al-Saadi explains the wisdom: witnessing closes the door to later dispute and to either party hiding what they are obliged to disclose. And to the witnesses themselves the command turns: 'establish the testimony for God' - render it exactly, al-Saadi says, no more and no less, seeking God's face, favoring neither relative for kinship nor friend for affection. Even in heartbreak, the āyah refuses to let justice slip.
In the language
The clause reads fa-idhā balaghna ajalahunna - literally 'when they have reached their term.' Al-Saadi catches a subtlety: balagha here means to approach, to near, not to arrive at completion. His reasoning is legal and precise - if the ʿidda had actually finished, the āyah's next instruction would be impossible, because a husband whose waiting period is fully over no longer has any choice to 'keep' his wife; that door is closed. So 'reaching the term' must mean nearing its edge, the last moment when both options - honorable return and honorable release - are still open. It is a small verb carrying a whole ruling: the window of choice sits just before the term expires, not after. Notice too the deliberate symmetry al-Saadi and Ibn Kathīr both hear - bi-maʿrūf repeated for the keeping and for the parting, as if to say the manner is identical whichever way the marriage goes.
Why this verse
65:2 is a fitting close to a Justice arc: it proves fairness is not only for courts, markets, and enemies, but for the most private wound of all - a marriage dissolving. On the day two people are most tempted to be cruel, the āyah legislates kindness and witnesses. Justice, it turns out, reaches all the way into heartbreak.
Bring it into today
Most of us will not oversee a divorce, but everyone ends relationships - a friendship that fades, a business partnership dissolved, an employee let go, a falling-out with family. 65:2 offers a template for ending things justly. First, bil-maʿrūf, honorably: al-Saadi's gloss is the standard - part without cursing, without trying to trap the other person, without pressuring them out of what is rightfully theirs. Decide the manner of the ending before you decide the terms. Second, witnesses: bring transparency into any separation that could later be disputed - put the agreement in writing, involve a fair third party, do not resolve it where one side can later deny what was owed. Al-Saadi's reason is practical: witnessing closes the door on future conflict. Ending something is itself a test of justice - maybe the hardest, because no one is watching and the relationship is already over.
A reflection to carry
65:2 places justice where we least expect it: the collapse of a marriage. Al-Saadi hears mercy in the grammar - 'reaching the term' means nearing its end, the last window when honorable return and honorable release are both still open. Both exits must be bil-maʿrūf, which al-Saadi insists means no harm, no cursing, no stripping her of her wealth. Then witnesses are called, because - as he explains - witnessing shuts the door on later dispute. The most private pain a person can feel, and still the āyah legislates fairness.
Sources: Ibn Kathīr, al-Saʿdī. The Qur'an and its translation are verified; the scholarship is retold faithfully in our own words and credited to its sources, never reproduced verbatim.
Also on Day 219
A verse, a healing, and a Sunnah, every morning.
Subscribe, free